QuoteThat its over?
Azaz?[/QUOTE]Originally Posted by third policeman
Agree about Azaz getting a cap but a five minute cameo is clutching at straws in the big picture!
That its over?
Agree about Azaz getting a cap but a five minute cameo is clutching at straws in the big picture![/QUOTE]
Probably both fair posts, yeah. Azaz was lively when he came on, and if that's the positive then we're scraping the barrel
Leaving O'Brien on the bench and bringin Doherty on to shuffle Coleman across was not a good look. Azaz should have been in before Sykes too. Not sure why O'Dowda gets on before Manning either.
Bringing a second striker on was an interesting move. Lacked a bit of imagination otherwise.
A promoted side would do well to pick him up given his speed. Depending on the asking price, a few sides might be interest. Burnley might fancy a gain on their 8m and re-investing a portion in a cheaper Belgian.
He has just turned 25 which isn't old but would be nice to see him get a bit of security at Premiership level because he has done well in two relegated sides.
so kenny was bad but i think its fair to say so are the players. we are just not very good and wont be for a long time, regardless of manager. need a superstar midfielder to pop up from somewhere.
Don’t agree
We have potential.
Need the right manager to make us stronger
Was at the game.
Did anyone norice in second half Coleman firing something at the bench and shouting at them? Think it was an energy drink
He looked very annoyed
One semi decent performance again followed by a turgid one. Familiar theme.
You need very strong panels these days with the two games so close together, and the players might not get much of a welcome back at their clubs if, they have flogged themselves in two games so close together ! !
Of course this is a big advantage to the stronger countries with stronger panels, which I am sure suits UEFA and FIFA just fine.
we've had potential since 2020! facts are our midfield is bad regardless of formation and we dont have the wing backs to really play a back 3 (though i think ogbene should be playing there). i really cant see how a new manager makes a midfield of cullen,smallbone,browne,knight,szmodics better. its championship fodder at best.
I don't know, there's an awful lot of mediocrity heading to the Euros this summer. Incredible that we weren't even partaking in the lottery of the playoffs at the end. We have enough to be in the mix if we're properly managed. But it's been as much of a mess off the field the last few years as on it.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
Properly managed in my opinion is creating goalscoring opportunities. The lack of goals in crunch games in recent years has been our downfall. With a goalscorer like Sam Szmodics and wingers like Johnson and Ogbene how can we not be scoring goals?
We’ve also had Stephen Kenny since 2020.
We have enough decent players to make us hard to beat and competitive and aiming for play-off spots
For obvious reasons I'd love to see someone from Belfast getting their chance and becoming one of our leading players, but in all honesty it isn't going to be Mark Sykes. He's 26 now and playing for a mid-table championship side. That feels like being as good as it will get for him, and he'll make a good living from it and fair play to him, but he shouldn't be called up again unless he can find a new level to his game. He's not good enough to be there on merit, and he's too old to be there as a prospect for the future.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
We weren’t in the lottery cause we got ridiculously hard groups both times around. We got France and Netherlands, instead of say Denmark and Finland (to quote our neighbours group)
And in the nations league we got Ukraine and Scotland. Ukraine took points off both England and Italy. Scotland beat Spain and took 4 points off Norway. Could easily have had a group with Iceland and Finland instead.
Also if we were in league A, C or D, we’d probably have made the playoffs. Winning the D which Estonia did got them playoffs. All league A teams reached playoffs if they didn’t qualify. And you’d fancy us to be a top 4 team if we were in League C.
It’s the same the time around. We got England. **** luck. One team you want to avoid and we get them…
As for the game. Was pretty disappointing. Freekick given away was needless, O’Shea didn’t need to make the foul, the touch was heavy and Brady was clearing it. Thought Bazunu could have done better for the goal (was at the stadium so haven’t seen a replay). But it wasn’t hit that hard and although it was well placed, I’d be disappointed. Also the pass that gave Xhaka the shot that hit the post was poor. Poor Gav, looks like he’s lost some of the confidence he had at the start of his Ireland career.
We didn’t really give up many chances but we didn’t do enough once we conceded to turn the game around. The shape was uninspired and didn’t get the best out of Szmodics, who is clearly an excellent all round footballer but doesn’t have the pace to play there. Also that 5-2-3 is so defensive chasing the game. We had 3 centre halves when they were playing without a striker. They just overloaded the midfield and dominated possession. You can live with that if you’re playing against superior opposition and holding out for a draw or a win - but to cede that when losing is kinda mad.
Thought Knight didn’t have a good game and Smallbone’s introduction was a notable improvement. Really disappointed not to see Obafemi at all. Ferguson was knackered and totally low in confidence even though his overall game is really good. He had that one opportunity where he got the ball and could have run at goal, instead he went away from goal and laid it across for Cullen. I think a confident Ferguson carries towards goal and scores. Idah made a huge difference when coming on with his pace, impressive cameo.
Dara O’Shea’s recovery pace is excellent. Showed it off well twice. Doherty was good off the bench. Good to see Azaz make his debut, probably should have shot earlier the two times he got in scoring position. Sykes isn’t a winger, I think if he has a future in the squad, it’s as a midfielder. Really want him to do well and he might be a decent footballer but it was a bad substitution.
I think it was pretty apparent tonight, to anyone who wasn’t aware already, John O’Shea isn’t the man to lead us…
It looked like O'Shea had made a plan, on Saturday it worked in fairness to a good extent, but equally nobody had seen it before Saturday either, tonight it looked like Switzerland had [ as part of only one weeks work for them remember ] had a look at us v Belgium, worked it out, countered it and nullified it and O'Shea had nothing in reply. Three at the back, three up front, but hopelessly outnumbered in midfield all night isn't a great look & he made every change but the one required to sort that out, he couldn't and he got beat. His post match was a concern also, there was a confidence there which I would deem misplaced, that what he had seen was ok and on another night we get a couple of goals & win that. I think we could play them five times in a row & he'd be bested five times also. He needed more than one way of setting up, he didn't have that, at the very least he needed to be able to counter the midfield numerical upper hand they had and he couldn't.
Which is annoyingly disappointing after Saturday.
Broadly agree with Jd2793 about the midfield, we don't really have one, and the ongoing unwillingness of posters / fans to objectively appraise what we do have, whoever is manager, in midfield baffles me. Even one very good one would change the dynamic, but the wait continues.
Stephen Kenny Saviour, Leader, Winner, An Autobiography - In All Good Bookstores Now
Crafty I think we all agree the midfield is an issue, we don't have a dominant player in there, but we make that situation worse by having 2 against 3 in games like tonight. That was the needed change, get a defender off and get another midfielder in there to help. Instead we got Ferguson playing left wing.... those UEFA coaching courses must teach weird sh1t
Its really not that complicated!!!
That was what I said though.
I'm more on about those thinking the good old days type times are a managerial appointment away. They aren't unless the guys name is Gandalf.
Stephen Kenny Saviour, Leader, Winner, An Autobiography - In All Good Bookstores Now
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